Bad App Was Just a Link in Iowa's Chain of Failure

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How Weak Oversight and Rushed Planning Crippled the Democratic Caucuses

This article is by Reid J. Epstein, unread emails waiting, with pho- Sydney Ember, Trip Gabriel and tos that had been sent sideways; Mike Baker. volunteers had to crane their DES MOINES — The first signs necks to decipher the handwritten of trouble came early. forms. As the smartphone app for re- An hour after the caucuses be- porting the results of the Iowa gan, the Iowa Democratic Party Democratic caucuses began fail- chairman, Troy Price, huddled in ing last Monday night, party offi- another room with other officials, cials instructed precinct leaders none of them with a clear strategy to move to Plan B: calling the re- to manage the unfolding chaos or sults into caucus headquarters, answers to share with increas- where dozens of volunteers would ingly exasperated presidential enter the figures into a secure sys- campaigns. A conference call with tem. the campaigns ended with Mr. But when many of those volun- Price hanging up on them, amid teers tried to log on to their com- accusations that caucus results in puters, they made an unsettling Iowa may have been incorrectly discovery. They needed smart- reported for decades. phones to retrieve a code, but they As disastrous as the 2020 Iowa had been told not to bring their caucuses have appeared to the phones into the “boiler room” in public, the failure runs deeper and Des Moines. wider than has previously been As a torrent of results were known, according to dozens of in- phoned in from school gymnasi- terviews with those involved. It ums, union halls and the myriad was a total system breakdown other gathering places that made that casts doubt on how a critical NOEL WEST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES the Iowa caucuses a world-fa- contest on the American political “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joon Ho, middle, took the best picture Oscar, becoming the first film not in the English language to win. mous model of democracy, it soon calendar has been managed for became clear that the whole years. process was melting down. Until now, the main public vil- lain in the Iowa caucus fiasco has INSIDE THE OUTBREAK Volunteers resorted to passing around a spare iPad to log into the been the reporting app, created by ‘Parasite’ Win system. Melissa Watson, the state a company called Shadow Inc., party’s chief financial officer, who along with a “coding issue” in a Makes History Watching as a Contagion Rips Through a Family was in charge of the boiler room, back-end results reporting sys- did not know how to operate a tem that state party officials she waved her arms in frustration. Google spreadsheet application blamed for the chaos. But the “But wait until when? We’ve al- used to input data, Democratic of- crackup resulted from cascading At the Oscars By AMY QIN 3 Generations Sickened ready lost one.” ficials later acknowledged. failures going back months. WUHAN, China — Bella Zhang and Desperate for The city of Wuhan, where the Others, desperate to verify re- The CEO of Shadow, Gerard hung an intravenous drip on a new coronavirus originated, is Niemira, was a veteran of the 2016 By KYLE BUCHANAN sults, began telling some precinct spindly tree branch and slumped struggling to get the epidemic un- Hillary Clinton campaign, where and BROOKS BARNES Care in Wuhan leaders to email photographs of down on a large stone planter out- der control. The government has their worksheets — the paper he oversaw tech products such as Ninety-two years of Oscar his- side the crowded hospital. Her imposed a travel lockdown but forms used to tally results — to a an app the campaign used to take tory were shattered Sunday night mother and brother sat wearily that has exacerbated the chal- dedicated email address. But for advantage of the quirky math of when the South Korean hit “Para- beside her, their shoulders sag- grandfather and mother. She and lenge posed by its limited re- hours, no one monitored the in- caucuses and track results in real site” became the first film not in ging, both also hooked up to their her younger brother were next. sources. box. When it was finally opened time. the English language to win the own drips. The family had pleaded for help, Overwhelmed and under- Tuesday morning, there were 700 Continued on Page A18 Academy Award for best picture. In recent days, Ms. Zhang, 25, a but the city’s hospitals, faced with staffed, hospitals have turned The class-struggle thriller faced perfume saleswoman with tinted an extreme shortage of beds, away many sick residents like the stiff competition for Hollywood’s blue hair, had watched helplessly could not take them. On Feb. 1, Zhangs, forcing them to go home top trophy from movies that in- as one by one, her relatives were Grandfather Zhang died at home. and quarantine themselves in cluded Quentin Tarantino’s show- sickened by the coronavirus that “They tell us to wait,” thun- small apartments where they risk Sanders and Buttigieg Face Off, biz epic, “Once Upon a Time . . . in was tearing through her home- dered Ms. Zhang’s mother, Yang infecting other family members. Hollywood,” the billion-dollar Nearly 17,000 people have been comic-book film “Joker” and Mar- town, Wuhan. First, her grand- Ling. She nearly ripped the intra- Trying to Whittle a Race to Two tin Scorsese’s Netflix crime mother got it, then it spread to her venous needle out of her hand as Continued on Page A8 drama, “The Irishman.” But “Par- asite,” directed by Bong Joon Ho, By ALEXANDER BURNS and NICK CORASANITI managed to pull off the final win in a moment that had audience HOOKSETT, N.H. — Senator For all its divisions, the Demo- members in the Dolby Theater Bernie Sanders of Vermont and cratic presidential field has been leaping to their feet. [Page C1.] former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of united for a year around the goal In honoring the film, which also South Bend, Ind., clashed of defeating Mr. Trump, and even won best director, original screen- throughout the day on Sunday, in a as attacks flew on Sunday the can- play and international feature, combative display of their deter- didates continued to pledge that voters managed to simulta- mination to treat the upcoming they would lock arms and work to- neously embrace the future — New Hampshire primary as a gether in the general election. But Hollywood’s overreliance on two-person race, with former Vice the weekend melee — complete white stories told by white film- President Joseph R. Biden Jr. con- with dark allusions to billionaire makers may finally be ebbing — tinuing to struggle. donors, allegations of intellectual and remain reverential to dec- After a year when Mr. Biden dishonesty and sarcastic refer- ades-old tradition: Unlike some and Senator Elizabeth Warren ences to political inexperience — other best-picture nominees, dominated the campaign at differ- showed how difficult that task “Parasite” was given a conven- ent stages, Mr. Sanders and Mr. could be if the primary becomes a tional release in theaters. It has Buttigieg have arrived in New prolonged and acrimonious affair. taken in $35.5 million at the North Hampshire with the greatest mo- One way to avoid a long prima- American box office since its re- mentum, according to public ry would be for Mr. Sanders or Mr. lease in October. Global ticket polling and a consensus of Demo- Buttigieg to fully unite either lib- sales stand at $165 million. cratic strategists in the state. A erals or moderates behind their “We never write to represent one-two finish for Mr. Sanders and campaigns. Such unity seems un- our countries” a beaming Bong Mr. Buttigieg here, after their likely: Mr. Sanders must contend said through a translator, as he ac- near-tie in Iowa, could reorder the with Ms. Warren on the left, while cepted the screenwriting Oscar race and hasten a reckoning Mr. Buttigieg is a long way from with Han Jin Won. among Democratic leaders about clearing the race of moderates like The film’s seismic win came in which man would be the stronger Mr. Biden and Senator Amy wake of the #OscarsSoWhite pro- NOEL CELIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES nominee against President Klobuchar of Minnesota, who has Continued on Page A20 Disinfecting a Shanghai office. Virus concerns have forced some Chinese cities to shut down. Trump. Continued on Page A17

Internet Delusion Oozes Offline Into Real World 18 Deadly Hours Shake Thailand to Its Roots

What began online more than the mall’s white tile floors as gun- By MIKE McINTIRE Politicians and Crimes two years ago as an intricate, if By MUKTITA SUHARTONO Shootings Began Over shots cracked, leading to a failed and KEVIN ROOSE baseless, conspiracy theory that and DAMIEN CAVE police raid, a follow-up — and fi- With Links to QAnon quickly attracted thousands of fol- a Real Estate Dispute nally, the lifeless body of the 32- A city council member in Cali- lowers has since found footholds KORAT, Thailand — The au- year-old gunman, dressed in mili- fornia took the dais and quoted in the offline world. QAnon has thorities killed the gunman near tary gear and surrounded by red from QAnon, a pro-Trump con- the altar and then fleeing before surfaced in political campaigns, the cold storage refrigerators of plastic grocery bins. spiracy theory about “deep state” being arrested. criminal cases, merchandising the Foodland supermarket in the of Korat, north of Bangkok. “My two children are at home traitors plotting against the presi- And outside a Trump campaign and at least one college class. Last mall he terrorized during Thai- Thailand’s prime minister said with their grandma now,” said dent, concluding her remarks, rally in Florida, people in “Q” T- month, hundreds of QAnon enthu- land’s deadliest mass shooting. the rampage started with a real Viparat Wansaboiy, who was “God bless Q.” shirts stopped by a tent to hear siasts gathered in a Tampa, Fla., It was just before 9 local time on estate dispute. The gunman was watching a movie at the mall with A man spouting QAnon beliefs outlandish tales of Democrats’ se- park to listen to speakers and pick Sunday morning — 18 hours after bitter and lugging weapons stolen her husband when the shooting about child sex trafficking swung cretly torturing and killing chil- up literature, and in England, a he fired the first shots in a relent- from a military base. It ended with broke out. “Luckily they didn’t a crowbar inside a historic Catho- dren to extract a life-extending supporter of President Trump and less spree that left at least 29 peo- hundreds of shoppers fleeing for come today.” lic chapel in Arizona, damaging chemical from their blood. Continued on Page A16 ple dead and 58 injured in the city their lives, their shoes slapping on Continued on Page A6

BUSINESS B1-10 SPORTSMONDAY D1-6 A Primary Challenger No Big Trades? No Big Deal The podcaster Lauren Chooljian has Even after sitting out the frenzy at the irked some people in New Hampshire N.B.A.’s trade deadline, the Milwaukee with “Stranglehold,” a close look at an Bucks, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, all-important contest. PAGE B1 believe they are the team to beat, Marc Stein writes. PAGE D1 INTERNATIONAL A4-11 Ransomware on the Rise NATIONAL A12-20 NEW YORK A21-22 Cyberattacks that lock people out of Hold On to Your Hat, and Spurs The Joys of Stroganina networks and demand payments to Rescuing a Community’s Voice What are cowboys thinking as they Attack on Police in the Bronx Fishermen and reindeer herders in regain access are more common and Downieville, Calif., was about to become prepare for bone-rattling rides aboard An assailant targeted a patrol van and Arctic Siberia have long snacked on more costly, new data shows. PAGE B1 the latest town to lose its newspaper. In bulls at Madison Square Garden? “It’s then a station house in a shooting ram- raw, frozen fish and meat. PAGE A4 stepped a 71-year-old retiree. PAGE A12 you versus them,” one said. PAGE D1 page that left two officers wounded and Getting the Max Back Aloft a third injured. PAGE A22 Web Use Is Up in North Korea Boeing’s grounded 737 could return to Guantánamo’s Long To-Do List EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 A report found that a surge in internet the air relatively soon, but the company, The trial of five men accused of plotting traffic had allowed the North to evade regulators, airlines and pilots must do 9/11 is set to begin next year, but big Madeleine Albright sanctions from the West. PAGE A11 several things first. PAGE B1 logistical challenges remain. PAGE A14 and Igor Ivanov PAGE A27 U(D54G1D)y+"!_!=!$!"